10 Ways to Protect Against the Dreaded Computer Virus

You may already have had a bad experience with a computer viruses. If this is true then you may have been due to opening an email from some one you didn't know, or from downloading a ton of different files off the internet. Either way, if you want to ensure this doesn't happen again, the you should read this article to guard yourself against the annoying computer bugs.

Listed below are some of the guidelines you can follow in order to keep those nasty viruses from making a mess out of your computer and your life.

1. Get yourself some antivirus software from a respected company such as Norton Antivirus software. You should set it up to run automatically every time you turn your computer on.

2. Make sure to keep your antivirus software up to date by either using the automatic update feature that many come with or make it a habit to manually check at least once or twice a week for updates on your own.

3. You can also set up your software to automatically scan for viruses each time you open a word document that you recieve through email. This virus is called a Macro Virus.

4. You should only download software from the internet if it is really neccessary. There maybe some great programs available online, but there are also many bad viruses too.

5. Tansfering data between storage devices like usb drives and discs, should only be done if really neccessary and they should be scanned for viruses before you install the data onto your machine.

6. If using floppy disks to transfer data make sure to format them before using them for the first time.

7. Only use trusted vendors when you are buying new software for your computer.

One of the most common ways of catching a virus is to install pirate software. This is illegal and should never be done.

9. Before you open and install a program you have downloaded of the internet, ALWAYS scan them for computer viruses.

10. Back up your files on regular basis so that if you do get infected, you can delete the corrupted files and replace them with clean ones that were saved earlier.

I can't guarantee, if you follow the step that I advise, that you won't get a computer virus, but I can promise you that it will be a less likely occurence by far.

About the Author

Roberto Beiro is a new author on the web. You can search for lots of computer advice from him at his website Old boy articles. There are also 100's of articles on other topics like finance advice, and travel advice .